


Gender Segregation of the Airbenders

by MetellaStella



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/F, Gender Identity, Homosexuality, LGBTQ Themes, M/M, Transgender, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-16
Updated: 2020-09-16
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:48:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26492908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MetellaStella/pseuds/MetellaStella
Summary: The Air Temples are separated by gender. But what happens when LGBT individuals are born? Speculation fic.
Kudos: 19





	Gender Segregation of the Airbenders

Monks who were attracted to the same gender had a few different choices. 

They could stay among their brothers or sisters, if they deemed their desires were not too overwhelming.

They could become a solitary wanderer, which wasn’t a bad life, either. 

Especially to ones who, through meditation, were perfectly at ease with stillness, and their own company. Loneliness was a pretty alien concept to many of the monks, even the older toddlers. 

Many elder monks had debated letting them live with the other gender, but most agreed that it would interrupt the flow of peaceful life for everyone else, so the dissenters were outvoted. 

So, it came to pass, that a few of these elders, bound and determined especially to provide a place where a gender nonconforming child would have a chance to be among their own perceived gender, left and established a fifth Temple. 

This fifth Temple was also gender segregated within reasonable limits. If, for instance, a male born girl joined a group of conventional girls, she was carefully monitored such that the other girls wouldn’t fight over her attention, being naturally inclined to perceive her as attractive, due to her body. 

It was definitely more chaotic than one of the main four Temples, but such was Fate. 

The same thing would happen if a girl who was attracted to girls joined the boys. Even though the little monks had the utmost manners and respect, they would still sometimes politely jockey for her favor, and the siren song of worldly attachments again tempted them. 

There was also the option of a totally mixed group, where all who were having difficulty with attachments came together. They sat in a circle and discussed their feelings, and how they dealt with them in meditations. 

They diligently sought out those they were not attracted to as playmates, the total opposite of any other Nation's social dynamics. Visitors would puzzle over this, and professors came to write about the phenomenon.

It was difficult. 

But, the elders liked to think, that the Spirits had a reason for blessing them with such children, as they were wise and mysterious. So they cheerfully put in the extra work to remain impartial, and be patient with pubescent airbenders. 

Patience was one of the main goals of meditation. 

And perhaps, the ones who were tempted, and yet persevered, they in a certain sense, accomplished more in taming themselves than those who never saw any difficulty. 


End file.
